GVPT Maths Camp
Introductions and Set Up
Welcome
Welcome to the UMD GVPT PhD program!
Gentle introduction to some of the tools you will use throughout the program and your research
Ask any and all questions
Introductions
Starting my third year in the program
Focus on dependence and conflict
Before starting my PhD:
Analyst with the Australian Department of Defence
Helped to develop the Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index
Worked on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index and Global Terrorism Index
Favourite Smithsonian: the zoo!
Learning objectives for today
Introduction to R and friends
Getting your computers set up
Why R?
A versatile programming language that is particularly good for statistical analysis
Involves a huge community of people who passionately contribute
Free and accessible!
Set up
Homebrew (macOS or Linux only)
R and RStudio
Git and GitHub
Homebrew: The Missing Package Manager for macOS and Linux
Go to https://brew.sh/
Follow instructions on the homepage
R and RStudio
R
R is a free and open-source programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics.
RStudio
RStudio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for the R programming language.
A Tour of RStudio
Source: R4DS
Git and GitHub
Git
Git is a version control system used for tracking changes in software development projects.
GitHub
GitHub is a web-based platform for version control and collaborative software development using Git.
Summary
This session you:
Learnt about new data science tools to help you conduct replicable and reproducible political science research
Set up your data science tools